I'm not sure he's kidding. I've heard the same sort of things about Blue Apron regarding the amount of prep time involved.

I doubt it's more than it would take to make it from scratch. Seasonings are already measured out, for example. If people are complaining about the prep time, I think that's more a problem with expectations.

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__________________The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again. ~ George Miller

A friend uses it, and loves it. She is single, mature, working, socially active, and it fits her lifestyle. Each meal is portioned for 2 people, and she gets 3 per week. She either make 2 meals out of it, has company, or gives something away. Blue Apron sent her some gift certificates to give her friends, and she gave me one.

When I ordered my free week, I was able to select 3 meals from a choice of 6 offered. They arrived in styrofoam, with ice packs, and much individual packaging. Even an egg was carefully and singly packaged and arrived intact. Of the 3 meals, we found one very good, one OK, and one we didn't like.

Although the portioning is done, the prep isn't. They were all very labor intensive, not because of the normal prep, but because of the selected recipes & ingredients. For example, we were to slice 2 radishes into paper thin slices. But the radishes were of some special kind (I forget what they called them) and they were the size of a dime. Difficult for my old fingers!!! Many other ingredients had similarly tedious prep. Although they were supposed to take 30 minutes, all 3 meals took 45-60 minutes to prepare - and one of these was just a grilled sandwich!

The advantage is that if you need 2 radishes and 6 Brussels sprouts, that's all you get. Same with spices that you may never use again. So you don't end up with all the excess going bad or getting old. You get to try different foods that you might not think of in your rotation. Many of us get used to the same dozen dishes, and this keeps you out of a rut. All of the proteins & produce were very fresh - better than some of the produce at Publix.

The cost is about $10 per meal per person. We eat out A LOT, and we can't eat out for that. So if you compare it to the cost of eating out, it's great, and for many single folks or empty-nesters, eating out is common.

As a routine, I probably wouldn't try Blue Apron again, but I did explore some of the others. A couple others were of more interest and had more variety and flexibility. For us, it could be a viable choice occasionally. I wouldn't do it every week.

If I were to do it again, I would probably choose Plated or Home Chef.
YMMV

When I first married my late wife, we worked at the same company. It became very obvious early on that if I sat on my butt while she did the prep and cooking, we would be eating at 10 PM!
That is when I became her souschef to do the chopping and slicing, hence my screen name

I just recently visited the test kitchen of one of these types of companies. They also sent me some meals to sample. It was kind of cool to see the process of finding recipes, testing recipes then getting them out to the customer.

First the chefs search for recipes.

Then in their test kitchen, they play with the recipe 1) to fit their budget per meal, 2) must be able toe be prepared in 40 minutes or less.

After they feel like they have achieved this, they give the meals to some of their employees ( non chefs) to try at home to make sure that it is simple enough, the instructions are clear and easy to follow, it fits the time constraint, and is overall successful.

If it passes all these tests, the prepare it again, the photographer takes the pics of the meal in stages, and when finished. They print up really nice recipe cards to send with the meal package.

This particular company has their main office/ test kitchen in Mass., but has an east and west coast location which locally purchase and packages the ingredients, recipe cards ... and ships out to the customers.

It was a neat process to see. For me, it was great , cause like mentioned above , it gives me the opportunity to try recipes I may never have even thought of trying. Introduces me to new cuisines, dishes, ingredients ... It does save the shopping aspect, but you have to be an average or better cook to get good end results within the amount of time allotted. For someone who doesn't like to cook, this isn't for them.

Also, the ingredients were very fresh, so when you receive the meal package, the clock is ticking. Got to prepare it within a few days to benefit from the freshness of the ingredients.

For the most part, everything is premeasured. All meals assume you have basic ingredients ( oil for frying, salt, pepper ... )